Duplo's blog

Hi All,

And welcome to a Duploworld update on our trip to Bergen in Norway:)

Welcome to Bergen

Above was the sight that Greeted us after dinner from the view point near "Fløyen". A great viewpoint reached by a small train. It was beautiful weather as we arived and after a walk of central Bergen, we jumped on the small train know as "Fløibanen" to the viewpoint for an excellent dinner and a sunset to die for.
We grabbed the last train down to Bergen and walked to the hotel to get some rest, we had big plans for the following day.

THe Following day, just after two o'clock, we set out for our half day hike to the tallest peak reachable on foot from bergen. "Ulriken" is the name and even though the weather looked overcast, no rain was forecasted so everything looked OK for a walk, or so we thought.
Streaming water

The route scheduled was to walk along Svartediket (a drinking water lake) into the the mountains.
The photo above is from one of the many streams leading into the the lake. Then follow a narrow creek called Ice valley (Isdalen) to a plateau of ridges leading to the peak and from there do a relatively steep decent back to bergen.
All went well until we turned up the Ice valley towards the ridges, light but warm rain set in. Visibility was still good though so we decided to continue. The path, was narrow but visible so no issues there either.
as we reached above the woods fog began to move in from the sea, however we still had decent visibility and even occational dry weather periods.
Miss Duplo in the Ice Valley

(Slightly overpowered the fill flash, but rain prevented me from another shot)
Reaching the ridge platou things turned bad real fast. Soon we found ourselves in constant and heavy rain, we even had fog dense enough to keep us from seeing anything at all:( we lost our track and with zero visibility we were in a bit of a jam. After a couple of hours we ran into two locals and though all was well, but they were as lost as we was.
we managed to find an emergency hut where we waited out the worst of the fog and rain there and survived the rest of the trip without incidents. Such an exciting day:) Not many photos to show for it though, as the heavy downpour and dense fog relly did not call for unpacking the camera from its weatherproofed bag:(
Steindalsfossen

Was our destination on day 3.
After shopping for some dry clothes, we rented a car and headed towards Steindalsfossen, one of the most photographed nature attractions in the Bergen area.
It was sucha beautiful place, but a challenge photographically speaking as there was an extreme amount of waterspray whenever you got even remotely close to it. Making long exposures, as the one above, next to impossible. It made me however rediscover just how big a difference shutterspeed makes when shooting a scene like this. Just take a look at the shot below, done from a little further away and without the ND filters.
Steindalsfossen #2

Shortly after our visit at Steindalsfossen the rain set in again, but we did manage to scout out some of the smaller villages in the area. The Bergen area really was amazingly beautiful, even in heavy rain.

Day 4, mean a drive towards a small boat going to "Lysøyen", the former home of the famous "Ole Bull" and now a museum in his honour. Unsurprisingly it was a day of heavy rain, but the visit to the museum, the guided tour and stories about Ole Bull was definitely worth it.
When we got back to the car we started towards "Østerøy". A friend had advised us that this particular area should be extremely beautiful and he was not lying. Probably the most beautiful area around Bergen, at least from what we managed to cover during our stay. It really says a lot when a landscape proves amazing during days of heavy rain. but Bergen turned out to be such a place.
Njästad, Østerøy

Day five was the day for us to return to Copenhagen. Bergen is a rainy place, but stunningly beautiful as well.
Came across like a minigreenland on steroids:) I mean similar mountains, but with heavy vegetation and a multitude of houses and roads:)
My only regret on this trip was not the weather, but the fact that I had left all my weathersealed lenses in Copenhagen:doh:
Above fact made this trip, a trip I enjoyed primarily through my eyes, but without a lot of photos to take me back. Defnitely not our last trip to this area and the next visit will be with a bag of weather sealed lenses though.

A modest gallery of photos from the trip can be found HERE.

Thanks for reading and do take care:)

Thomas